Wisconsin a leader in prosecuting drug deaths

May 30, 2014

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Written by

Gannett Wisconsin Media Investigative Team

Wisconsin is unusual in its willingness to pursue those who provide drugs in fatal overdose cases.

Some states have no law criminalizing such actions, while others have not made drug-related homicides a priority, officials say.

“It’s a growing trend, but still a tactic used in a minority of states around the country,” said Ron Sullivan, director of the Criminal Justice Institute at Harvard Law School.

Wisconsin convicted 76 people for drug-related homicides from 2010 to 2013, rising from 14 in 2011 to more than 20 in the last two years.

Ten people were sentenced for drug-related homicide charges in Minnesota in that span, according to the Minnesota Sentencing Guidelines Commission. In Washington State, nine people were sentenced for drug-related homicides from fiscal years 2010 to 2013, according to the state’s Caseload Forecast Council.

Michigan prosecutes drug homicides more aggressively, filing charges against 75 people from 2010 to 2013, according to the Michigan Supreme Court. But that is still far below Wisconsin, which filed 181 such charges in that span.

Other states, including Ohio and Oregon, still have no such law on the books, though they sometimes refer drug deaths to federal court for prosecution.

More states have zeroed in on prosecuting drug deaths in recent years. Illinois and Pennsylvania passed drug-induced homicide laws in 2011, and Kansas passed a similar law last year.

Phil Prokopowicz, chief deputy for the county attorney in Dakota County, Minnesota’s third-largest, attributed the increase to the wide demographic of heroin users.

“When you have the heroin addict who’s in the alleyway with a needle in their arm, the sympathy really isn’t there as much. If it’s a young suburban high school kid who dies because of it, all the sudden the awareness pops up,” Prokopowicz said. “Law enforcement agencies and prosecutors are — because of the public pressure — saying, ‘Wait a minute, we need to take a look at this.’”